Creating a Sustainable Economic Development Plan for Pittsburgh

There has been a lot of discussion lately on what the city should be requiring from large real estate deals that involve public subsidies.  Fortunately, the same discussion is happening all over the globe.  Cites, regions, states and even counties are looking at opportunities to create real economic growth.  In the “Research Triangle” of North Carolina, businesses are developing their own way to promote a sustainable economy based on profit, people and planet.  This is a voluntary initiative that is being sponsored by their own Chamber of Commerce as a model that is pro-business.

Pittsburgh does not compete with our suburbs – we compete with other regions.  We need to expect more from government than real estate development – we need real economic development.  When it comes to using our scarce incentives and grants, we need to expect more than just profits for land developers.  We need a new economic development plan in Pittsburgh that guarantees that publicly subsidized developments improve the public.   Pittsburgh needs to become a leader in Triple Bottom Line economics and sustainable growth.  By assuring these principles we will minimize negative outcomes to communities and the environment.  We will invest in projects that invest in people and the industries that will rebuild our region.  And, we will end the cycle of using tax dollars to simply develop land.

The business community of North Carolina’s Research Triangle understand that the model of economic growth and sustainability is vastly different than it was in the 1950s.  It is time for Pittsburgh to make this transition for all publicly subsidized projects and enable our new economy to prosper – for everyone.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 20th, 2009 at 2:37 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.